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Arsenal’s season opener was a complete disaster, but it could have been worse.

Bacary Sagna, Arsenal’s longtime starter at right fullback, had a brush with disaster Saturday. He narrowly avoided catastrophic injury after jumping into the air, falling awkwardly and landing on his neck. The frightening incident occurred in the 90th minute of Arsenal’s 3-1 loss to Aston Villa.

Sagna jumped to contest a header, but Villa’s Christian Benteke slightly undercut him, causing him to land neck-first with the full force of his body weight following right behind him. Sagna was in obvious pain as he lay on the ground. Eventually, he left the field under his own power and Lukas Podolski replaced him.

It seems Sagna escaped major injury in the fall. He may not recover in time to play for the Gunners when they face Fenerbache on Wednesday, but he could return to action in the near future.

Arsenal’s day of horror also saw Kieran Gibbs, Tomas Rosicky, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffer injuries. Had Sagna landed in a different spot the complexion of Arsenal’s day (and remaining bulk of the season) would have changed forever.